The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) owner Sanjiv Goenka has said that they have decided Rishabh Pant and Nicholas Pooran could be their captain for IPL 2025 and that the announcement will be made soon as well. He also shared how the franchise arrived at the final bid amount for Pant in the IPL 2025 auction as well. However, LSG retained Pooran for ₹21 crore and acquired Pant for ₹27 crore, the most expensive buy in IPL history, at the mega auction in Jeddah as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “People get surprised very quickly. According to me, I don’t give surprises. It has been decided but we will announce it in the next few days. They (Delhi Capitals) bid for Shreyas (Iyer) till ₹26.50 crore. That means for their No. 1 player, they had that kind of a budget, and knowing Parth’s (Jindal) extreme fondness for Rishabh, I felt they might spend a little more on him than they would on Shreyas. So that is why two bid amounts extra.”
In the same video, Aakash Chopra also asked Sanjiv Goenka whether Rishabh Pant will open for the Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2025 as well.
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“We decided that we had to make our middle order strong and have an Indian core. However, auctions don’t go exactly the way you plan it. We made a very big go for Jos Buttler but we fell one or two bid amounts short. Zak (Zaheer Khan) JL (Justin Langer), and the captain will decide it,” he replied. “Options are to open with Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh, Marsh and Rishabh Pant, or Markram and Rishabh. Now that is a call they have to take whether Rishabh will come at No. 3 or No. 2. Those are calls that frankly are beyond my capability and competence.”
“Zak has a thought process and I think he has already spoken to the captain a couple of times, and I think Zak, Langer and the captain will be meeting soon together, and all three of them will have a conversation and they will take a call. Whatever their call is, I will support it 100 percent,” he further added.
Sanjiv Goenka also opened up on LSG’s 3 scenarios as part of the IPL 2025 auction strategy.
“We had prepared three scenarios. One was with Rishabh Pant and Jos Buttler. So the idea was to go with an explosive opening pair that gives 60 to 85 runs in the powerplay. Jos was in lot one. So if we had succeeded, that was the way we would have gone. We did not get that,” he replied. “Then we said let’s go with Yuzi. So Yuzi, Bishnoi and Mayank from over six to over 17. So that would have made those 12 overs extremely solid. Three principal wicket-takers, with very good economy in bowling, so you would have bottled the opposition. So we went a huge distance for Yuzi but we got outbid,” he shared.
“Our third preference was to build a solid middle and finishing core so that you can chase down any total. You are missing one or two brands in bowling but you are making up by the middle order and your finishers such that you can chase down any total. So these were the three thought processes. In all three scenarios, Rishabh Pant was integral to the planning,” Sanjiv Goenka concluded.
